‘Prosecute military officers indicted in Shiite killings’

A human rights group, the Access to Justice (A2J), has called for the prosecution of military officers indicted by the Justice Garba Panel of Enquiry over last year’s Shiite killings in Kaduna.

The clashes began when military officials in a convoy of the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General T.Y. Buratai, opened fire on Islamic Movement in Nigeria (or Shiite) members who blocked the highway. The shooting led to hundreds deaths of Shiite members.

Kaduna State government is reportedly prosecuting about 256 Shiite members for various offences, some of which carry the death penalty, arising from the clashes which took place last December.

A Judicial Panel of Enquiry was said to have indicted a Major General and a Colonel for their role in the killings, having found that the “force deployed by the army against the Shi’ites was ‘disproportionate’”.

A2J, in a statement by its Executive Director Joseph Otteh, said the indicted military officials should not be spared.

“A failure to prosecute military officers implicated in Shiite Killings will be grave, atrocious injustice. Nigeria cannot adopt an ‘apartheid’ system of justice in a constitutional democracy,” the group said.

The group said in a democracy, even the military should not be untouchable, therefore, all the military officers indicted by panel must be prosecuted.

“A democratic, constitutional government means that the government is not at liberty to prefer one life above another, or to make judgments on the value of each person’s life based on ethnicity, faith, status or institutional affiliations, but must offer equal protection to Nigerian citizens.

“It means that the government must provide equal protection of the law to all citizens and, therefore, hold accountable in equal measure, any persons who have caused or contributed to the loss of any life,” A2J added.